The 74th Annual Hunger Games
by SwiftslashxLeafstorm
Summary: Katniss Everdeen has just volunteeed for her sister in District 12. Hayley Jewel has just volunteered for her bst friend who's like a younger sister to her. Join Hayley from District 3 as she enters the arena... and doesn't come out. Rated T for deaths.


**Wow. This is my first Hunger Games FanFiction, so I changed my writing style to better suit the ****genre of it. please tell me what you think, and if you think I should continue with it.**

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><p>I slowly blink open my eyes, which are blurred from sleep and look around at our house. Milly, my four year old sister, is not in my room, so she must have crawled in with my mother last night. I can't say I blame her. No one likes the day of the reaping. But there's a sense of togetherness in the air in District 3. Everyone feels a little closer on this day. I quickly get out of bed and creep into my brother Nicol's room. He isn't asleep, and is just exiting his room. He looks down at me and smiles.<p>

Yes, it's his fifteen-year-old sisters fourth reaping, and she already has fourteen tiny slips of paper in the drawing.

"Hey, sis," he says in his gruff voice. He's eighteen and has thirty-two entries for tesserae.

"Hi," I reply. Our mother then steps into the dimly lit hallway, weary-eyed and carrying Milly over one shoulder.

"Here you go," she sighs, placing two small gold pins on the broken table. They are adorned with a lightning bolt arching across a cloudy sky, the symbol of District 3. We nod and delicately take the pins from the table. Milly climbs off mother and runs up to us, hugging us tightly and clasping my lightly tanned hand with her pale one. She then produces something from the torn pocket of her ragged jumpsuit and plops something in our hands.

They're stones. There are lots of stones like this, a smooth, round, perfect flattish oval of a blue-grey tone, around the streets of District 3 if you look closely. But I can tell it means a lot, and I plant a kiss on her tangled brown hair. She hugs me even tighter.

We have no words at breakfast. There is just silence as we slowly eat our bread.

As I exit the door of our stone house, oh so familiar to the whole row of stone walled houses along the row leading up to the electricity generator, I feel the tension that is hanging around inside of our house disappears. As Nicol and I trudge down the muddy track toward the market, someone runs up to me and grabs me tight. It's my friend Mostie from school. She looks worried, and I can't blame her. She has been supplying for her family of seven for three years with tesserae, so she has twenty-six slips in for the reaping. I hug her tightly.

"Happy Hunger Games!" She whispers in my ear in a false thick Capitol accent. I giggle a little hysterically. "And may the odds be _ever _in your favour!" I return, mimicking the voice of Kannie Nazoni, the super-happy announcer who comes for the reaping each year to announce the winners. Nicol nudges me and says sternly, "This is no joking matter," although there is a lightness to his voice which betrays the disgust toward the Hunger Games that he always hides.

As Mostie leaves, still giggling, we enter the market and trudge toward our stall. A while ago, our mother bought the stall from a drunken old man for only a single chicken. It sells game we shoot with bows and arrows, and also an array of herbs, edible berries, roots, and certain bark. There is a huge forest which some say connects with District 12 that is abundant with these things. We can also get a good price for them, for everyone in our District except for me and Nicol are lousy shots and have no idea how to even string a bow.

Nicol instructed me to go to the forest and shoot some fresh game before the market opened in the evening. I agreed and slipped out of the crack in the wall of the market house that lead directly to the forest and where our stash of arrows is kept. I reach into the familiar hollow log and close my fingers around my bow and arrow, pull it out, then fumble around for my quiver. My fingers brush something furry, and I realise that there's a squirrel trapped by me in there. Quick as lightning, I string my bow, pull out an arrow, and shoot. There is a squeal and a _thump_, and I grab the limp body.

As I pull the quite-large squirrel into the half-hearted sunlight, I notice the arrow struck cleanly into its eye. _Lucky shot,_ I think hopefully. I then go about checking my snares. It has been a lucky night, and I pick up three rabbits. I realise that there's a while left before the market opens, and I collect some roots, berries, and pine bark, then catch twelve fish. I stagger under the weight of my impressive days catch, and look up and notice that it's evening, and the market is about to open. As I stumble awkwardly home, I almost collide with a girl a little older then me who I've never seen before. She also carried a bow.

"Who are you?" I ask warily, hoping she isn't an Avox.

"Katniss," she replies. Few, she can speak. _Not an Avox._

"I'm Hayley," I whisper. "Hayley Jewel, and I'm from District 3."

"I'm from District 12," she whispers back. So the forest _does _connect to District 12.

"Good luck for the reaping," I wish to her.

"Same with you."

As I get to the market, I find Nicol waiting for me. The bakers Daine and Collen are walking over to the main door so the people on District 3 can buy their daily breads and meats and, for the richer people, rugs and cakes and pretty accessories.

"Where have you been?" hisses Nicol, although I can tell he's impressed with my haul. We have just enough time to arrange the various items on the table before the doors creak open. Nicol is still skinning and deboning the last rabbit as our fist customer races up to us.

It's Peol Yathim, a somewhat-wealthy regular. Peol digs into his pocket and places four coins on our table. He ends up taking some blackberries, three fish, and the squirrel. He adds another few coins and overpays, but when I tell him he's given too much and it's only worth about four, he just smiles and says to keep it.

Nicol finished the rabbit and placed it in a small wrap of plastic, along with some mushrooms, a few herbs, some berries, and three silver fish. There was still plenty left, and Nicol looked up and said, "We'll keep them for home. Go buy some bread from Collen with the money that Peol just gave us. It's reaping day, so we must have something _positive _to think about." He smiles grimly. "And maybe buy a new dress from Agatha. She has a fondness for you, and might let you have a nice one for a few coins. Again, it _is_ reaping day." I nodded and trotted across to the bakery, one of the few permanent buildings in the market.

Daine was busy selling bread to a fat Peacekeeper with a very shiny bald head and Collen comes up to me, smiling. I produce a few coins and swapped them for two fresh loaves of bread and three small rolls. He pats me gently on the head, my dark brown hair sticking to his hand a little. I leave and walk over to the little but bright shop that Agatha runs. It always sparkles with different dresses, and today they were mainly smaller ones.

Reaping dresses.

Agatha smiles as I enter her colourful store. "A reaping dress, Haley Jewel?" she asks with a rather tight smile, which seems to age her wrinkled face even more. I nod silently and say, "Yes, possibly. One _has_ to look good for the reaping."

She returns to the tiny cash box she keeps tucked away behind a chair and rummages through it until she finds what she's looking for and brings out a tape measure. She measures my waist and smiles to me, "You have a very good figure, Hayley."

Then, Agatha turns to a rack and begins sorting through dresses that seem to be my size.

She finally produces a flowing dark blue dress, rippling with glowing shine from the weird blue-white lights that are the only lights supplied for the District. I gasp.

"Well, try it on," instructs Agatha. I swallow, and feel my cheeks flush. _In front of all these_ _people?_ I think self-consciously. I repeat these thoughts to Agatha, who sighs and parts a deep red curtain hidden amongst the fabrics of clothes to reveal a small room, the curtain and walls of it blocking its interior from the eyes of anyone on the outside of it. I bade her thanks and grab the dress out of her leathery hands.

A moment later I step out of the change room wearing the deep blue garment, the silky cool touch of fabric smoothly dancing around my ankles as the long dresses hem swept across them. Multiple gasps are heard as I realise that a few other people are staring at me. It's lucky that the market is about to close for the reaping, otherwise more than half of District 3 would have seen me. Agatha shows me my reflection, and I gasp also. The dress compliments my own features perfectly, the dark blue fabric showing up my brilliant blue eyes and making my dark hair and slightly tanned skin seem a thousand times more appealing.

I produce a meagre four coins, then add six more. Each year, I save six coins for my reaping dress. Agatha takes the precious pile out of my hands, takes the six I had saved, and returns the remaining four to my hand with a brief smile. I run out of the shop, almost slamming into Nicol doing so. Without a word, I dance home, enjoying the silky feel of the fabric rippling across my skin.

As I run through the door of my house, Milly and my mother descended upon me like a crow. Milly ran up to me and jumped toward my arms. I catch her in a hug and spin her around, setting her down and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Mother descends on me now, fussing about my hair, quickly brushing it out and pulling it into a simple but beautiful fish plait.

"That's a nice dress," Milly comments. "Why do you wear it?" I sigh. She doesn't understand that in a few hours we'll be leaving for the reaping, and if my name gets called, I'll be as good as dead. Instead of telling her though, I lift her into the air and whisper, "Because we're going to something special today.

Nicol then arrives with a small purse of earnings and the food wrapped in plastic.

We eat a splendid lunch, rabbit stew with tender rabbit. My mother has a skill for cooking, and it seems she's drained all her worry into cooking expertise for the meal. We eat the food ravenously.

Then, we're off.

To my reaping, for the 74th Annual Hunger Games.

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><p><strong>Who's heard about the movie for the Hunger Games? It's coming on the 23rd or 22nd, and I CAN'T WAIT! MEEP!<strong>

**Reviews are apprieciated, but only if you think my story is good or would like to give some constructive critisism. Flames and hate reviews just waste your time. **

**GO KATNISS!**


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